


Time and Miles Can't Come Between

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Following, Warehouse 13
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 13:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/837348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike has an unexpected visitor, but he's not the one who gets a surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time and Miles Can't Come Between

**Author's Note:**

> I'm nervous about posting this as two people are already doing The Following/Warehouse 13 crosses that have Steve and Mike as brothers. (Also, newbie to Warehouse 13.) Both those stories, however, have Steve as one of the brothers with whom Mike doesn't get along... I wanted to see what would happen if Steve was the one he did get along with. This is what happened.   
> Also has Mike/Debra because that's how I roll.   
> Title from "Brotherly Love" by Keith Whitley and Earl Thomas Conley.

Mike looks surprised when he opens the door, but Steve had kinda been expecting that. After all, he hadn't called ahead, so there's no way Mike would have been expecting him to drop everything and head to DC. What Steve isn't  expecting is for Mike to look like he's just got out of bed - rumpled t-shirt, pyjama pants, mussed hair, the lot. Then again, he's been chasing a serial killer cult for the last few weeks so Steve supposes he can give him a pass on sacking out early. 

Mike's jaw drops when he sees him standing there but he recovers quickly enough to respond to Steve's hug. "What are you doing here?" he asks and Steve shrugs as he pulls back, picks up his bag from where he'd dropped it when he'd hugged Mike. 

"I saw the news." He'd set up an alert for any breaking news in the Carroll case weeks ago; hearing reports of the lunatic's demise had made his day and had him searching for the next flight here. "I figured if I called, you'd bullshit me that you're ok. So..."

"You thought you'd see if I was lying in person." Mike's voice is dry as Steve pushes past him into the apartment, drops his bag near the door. 

"Something like that. Or we could just get drunk." Steve's easy either way; between the stuff he's heard on the news and Mike's near death experience, he's been living on his nerves the last few weeks and getting hammered sounds pretty good right now. 

Except for Mike is shifting on his feet, one hand rising to scratch the back of his neck. "The thing is, it's not the best time..."

Steve narrows his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

 Which is a lie, Steve knows. He tilts his head, stares at Mike and asks, "What aren't you telling me?"

Mike opens his mouth but the voice that speaks is decidedly not his - it's female, for one thing. "Oh my God," it says  and Steve's head swings around in the direction the voice came from. There's a woman standing there, eyes wide in a pale face, dark wavy hair tousled and spilling over the shoulders of a bathrobe that is identical to the one that's hanging on the door of Steve's room in the B&B. Confirmation of his long held hunch that their mom still buys them identical Christmas gifts makes Steve smile, but his smile fades along with whatever colour is left in the woman's face, and then she's clinging to the doorframe like it's the only thing keeping her upright. 

Mike crosses the floor to her side quicker than Steve's seen outside of an artifact related incident, his voice urgent when he says, "Are you ok?"

Her hands grip his arms and Steve can see her knuckles turn white from clear across the room. "You're a twin," she says, staring up at Mike, then across to Steve, then back to Mike. "Why didn't you tell me you're a twin?"

Mike's hands are on her arms, helping keep her upright and he shrugs his shoulders. "It never came up," he tells her. "And this isn't exactly how I imagined you meeting."

Steve blinks at that and from the tilt of the woman's head, she takes the same meaning from that statement that he does. "You've thought about me meeting your family?"

"No." The reply comes so quickly that Steve knows it's a lie straight away and it's nothing to do with his ability. He tries to hide it, but Mike's always been a bleeding heart romantic - Steve knows if things are any way serious with this woman, Mike's probably already named their kids. If the smile on the woman's face is anything to go by, she knows he's lying too but she doesn't call him on it. Instead her smile is warm, tender even, and something about seeing a woman looking at his brother like that makes Steve grin. He grins even more when Mike's cheeks darken - hey, he's his twin brother, they're allowed do stuff like that - and makes a show of clearing his throat, waving his hand at the couple when they look, startled, at him - he knew they'd briefly forgotten all about him. 

"Still here," is all he says and Mike's features relax into a smile. He slides an arm around the woman's waist, turning her slightly so that she faces Steve.

"Steve," he says, "This is Debra Parker. Deb-" And here he squeezes her waist, like he's trying to put her at ease - "This is my brother, Steve."

Figuring that he'd better be the one to make a move, Steve walks towards them, extends a hand. Debra takes it, shakes it with a smile. "It's nice to meet you," he says. "Sorry for interrupting."

Now it's Debra's cheeks that flush pink and Mike once more shifts on his feet. "Come on," he says, tugging at Debra's shoulder, his arm still around it. "You need to sit down." 

Something in his voice, in his face, makes Steve think that there's more to that statement than "Surprise! I'm a twin!" Whether that's correct or not, Debra puts up no resistance, allows Mike to lead her to the couch, sit her down on it while he heads to the kitchen. While he's gone, Debra curls up on the couch, tucks her bare feet underneath her and makes herself comfortable. Steve, meanwhile, sits down on the armchair nearest the couch, accepts a beer from Mike when he returns. He hands a second to Debra, then sits down beside her, beer in one hand, the other resting on her knee. Steve takes a long drink of his beer, holds up his free hand. "Guess I should have called."

Mike rolls his eyes. "Chalk it up to another answer for the 'no, we don't have twin telepathy' question." The two brothers share a grin and Debra's eyes flit between them like a spectator at a tennis match. "I was going to call you," Mike adds and Steve knows he's telling the truth. "You always were the impatient one."

Debra grins as Steve lifts his hands in the universal expression for guilty as charged. "I can understand why you didn't," is all he says and it's hard to tell who goes more scarlet more quickly, Mike or Debra, even if he didn't mean it salaciously. Well, not entirely. 

"It's been a long couple of days," Mike says, eyes darkening as he glances over at Debra. His fingers tighten on her knee and Steve suddenly thinks - like he's been hanging around Myka too long and some of her observational skills are rubbing off - that he wants to reassure himself she's still actually there. 

And when Debra's hand closes over Mike's, Steve realises she's doing the exact same thing. 

"So, how did you guys meet?" he asks, keeping his voice light and Mike tilts his head towards Debra, indicating that she should take the lead. 

"I was brought in to head the Carroll task force," she says simply and Steve can't help himself: his eyebrows go all the way up. 

"And one thing lead to another," Mike continues, a note in his voice that Steve recognises as warning. 

Taking a sip of his drink, he holds the bottle up between them in salute. "So at least something good came out of it," he says and the relief on Mike's face is almost comical. "I take it this is something you were also going to call me about?"

"Eventually." Mike sounds tired, so very, very tired and Debra bites her lip as she looks up at him. Mike looks over at her, his fingers flexing on her knee, then he visibly shakes himself. "What about you?" he asks Steve. "Did you find it hard to get away from the badlands?" 

It's an old joke but Steve still smiles and when Debra blinks, looks between them in confusion, he tells her, "I'm an ATF agent, stationed in South Dakota." The lie rolls easily off his tongue. "And my boss was fine with me coming here.. said to take as much time as I needed." In point of fact, Artie had been trying to get him to go for weeks, arguing that his ability would make his brother's life easier, and while it may have been true, Steve had the idea that it may have caused more problems than it solved. 

Debra shakes her head. "ATF and FBI," she murmurs. "So law enforcement's the family business?" 

Mike shifts uncomfortably and Steve's eyebrows once more head north. "Not quite," Mike says, looking at Steve. 

Steve takes pity on Debra's obvious confusion. "We're the youngest," he tells her. "Dad's military, so are our two brothers. And..." Now it's his turn to shift because while he's learned to live with this, it's not something he likes to dwell on. "Well, let's just say, don't ask, don't tell? Kind of a way of life for them. Makes it hard when they're told something they don't want to hear." 

Debra's eyes grow round with understanding and not a little sympathy. "I'm sorry," she says and she sounds like she means it. 

"It's ok," he tells her. "Mom and Mike were ok with it..." He doesn't mention their sister, something telling him that since Mike hadn't mentioned being a twin that that's a tale best left for another time. "Better than nothing, right?" It's why he'd chosen to change his last name to their mom's maiden name - why keep the name of the man who'd rejected you?

Debra's eyes are very far away suddenly and Steve's left wondering what he'd said when she nods slowly. "Yeah," she whispers and to his surprise, she sounds close to tears. Her battle to control herself is visible and while she's struggling, Mike sets his beer down on the floor beside him, takes hers from her hand and puts it down too. He sits up straight, turns to face her, takes both her hands in his and Debra gives him the shakiest smile Steve's ever seen. She takes a deep breath, shakes herself, lets the breath out slowly before she turns to Steve. "Sorry," she says. "Long day."

"Long few weeks?" Steve guesses and she nods. Steve shrugs exaggeratedly. "And that was just dealing with Mike, not even the case, right?" 

It's a weak joke but it surprises a giggle out of Debra. "If you're going to gang up on me," Mike says with a roll of his eyes, "You can go back to South Dakota."

"I'll behave." But Steve winks when he meets Debra's eyes and she smiles over at him. 

Mike once again rolls his eyes. "I'll believe that when I see it," he mutters, lifting his arm around Debra's shoulders. She leans in against him, rests her head against his chest for a moment before she straightens back up. 

"I'm going to leave you guys to it," she decides, going to stand up. A tiny frown appears on Mike's face and he takes her hand before she can rise.

"You sure you're ok?"

Debra gets that tender smile on her face again, reaches up and touches his face with her hand. "Just tired," she says and while it's not a lie, Steve knows it's not entirely true either. 

He suspects Mike does too but his brother doesn't call her on it, just touches her cheek, pulls her in for a kiss. "I'll be in soon," he promises. 

"Take your time," she tells him as she stands. "Nice to meet you," she says to Steve and he grins up at her. 

"You too." He watches Mike watching her walk to the bedroom,  sees the smile he gives her when she pauses at the door, turns back to them and smiles. It's caught between that same tenderness and slight amazement and she shakes her head as she goes into the room. 

Mike watches the empty doorway for what seems like a long time before he turns back to Steve and when he does, Steve is blunt with his question. 

"What happened to her?"

Mike reaches down for his beer, takes a long swallow. "Joe's people took her," he says with some difficulty. "They buried her in a coffin in the woods... made us find her. Which we did...  but she wasn't breathing. We barely got her back." He shudders. "She should be in hospital but she refused to stay there."

"Shit." Steve takes a deep breath. "That is.."

"Fucked up." Mike finishes his beer in a  couple of gulps, reaches down and starts on Debra's forgotten one. 

"But you got him." Steve leans forward in his seat. "Carroll's dead."

"Yeah." Mike's sigh has Steve's ability lighting up like Fourth of July and he leans forward even further, narrows his eyes. 

"Mike?"

Mike looks heavenward, shakes his head. "They say he couldn't have survived the explosion...his wounds. The water. They say they have a DNA match. And I don't trust it." He keeps his voice low. "I don't trust anything anymore. And even if Joe is dead...you have no idea how deep this thing went. We only have a fraction of his followers in custody." He sighs. "When you rang the doorbell, I answered it with my weapon in my hand."

For once in his life, Steve is at a loss for words. Mike must see that because he shrugs, presses the heel of his hand into first one eye, then the other. "I'm barely holding it together," he says. "And Deb... she's so fragile right now...  if something happens to her and I couldn't stop it..."

His voice trails off and Steve realises something. "You're in love with her," he says and Mike freezes for a split second before shaking his head. 

"It all happened so fast," he says. "I don't know."

Once again, Steve's ability displays fireworks. "Lie to yourself all you want, man," he says gently. "But you can't lie to me."

Mike looks over at him, is silent for a long moment. "OK, so I love her," he admits finally. "I just don't know if that makes a difference."

"It does," Steve tells him, "And you know  it does." He waits until Mike nods before he speaks again. "And if the worst happens? The safest B&B in the world is in Univille, South Dakota... get yourselves there, we'll take care of the rest."

If Mike thinks there's something strange in that, he says nothing, confirming another of Steve's long held beliefs that Mike is well aware of the fact that his ATF status has changed to a convenient cover. 

"Appreciate it," he says simply and Steve raises his beer bottle, tilts it towards Mike. Mike takes the hint, clinks his against it and Steve's next words are as much promise as anything else. 

"Hey, she's family now too."

They alternate between silence and chatter as they finish their beers and although Mike offers him another, Steve declines - not only is Mike about to fall asleep, he's also taken to looking over his shoulder towards the bedroom, no doubt worrying about Debra. "Go to bed, Mike," Steve orders.

Mike stands. "You're ok with the couch?"

Steve grins. "Well, I thought I'd crash with you, but since you got a better offer..." He lets his voice trail off and Mike punches him in the shoulder. Steve takes advantage of the proximity to pull him into a hug. "I'll be fine, man," he says. "And so will you. Both of you."

Mike doesn't - can't - speak, so he just nods, heads into the bedroom to Debra. Grinning, Steve watches him go, knowing he'd told him the truth - after all that's what brothers are for. 


End file.
